Where can we improve and where have we improved

[microfich]

Individually based upon what we've been able to glean this summer.

Andre Jackson
Needs: Successful hoop attacks including more FTs.
Has: 3pt success, increased awareness, leadership. I could go on. Stat sheet stuffer.

Jordan Hawkins
Needs: Better handle. Wider shot selection.
Has: Stronger. Said wider shot selection.

Adama Sanogo
Needs: Finding the open man on double teams. Hitting the 15 footer.
Has: Working hard on the little things. He's got that NBA glow.

Samson Johnson
Needs: Catching up to the speed of high D1 play. Better rotation on his jumper.
Has: Athleticism at the 4. So much room to grow, could be exciting or could be a while. The ?

Tristen Newton, let's call this PG play
Needs: Shutting down other PGs and removing the poster target.
Has: Elite size, scoring and dishwashing.

Bench
Needs: Depth, change of pace at point, defense as a whole especially across the back. Scoring.
Has: At least 5 guys (I say 6) who will contribute. Experienced high D1 talent. Frosh who will actually play.

Last season we slowed play as our bench speed was woeful beyond Hawkins.
We need to replace points from Polley and Hawkins (13.4 of our 19.0 bench ppg)
Our lone bench PG last year, Gaffney, was mostly miserable. Not apparent who will bring the ball up but D1-proven Alleyne and Diarra as combos
give us shooting, scoring and defense while Calcaterra is a dead-eye.
Clingan will protect and distribute, a step up from Akok. His huge presence alone impacts the game.
Karaban is a wild card who can fill it and may already have the body to compete.
Springs has to be considered for PT especially if Johnson struggles. His rebounding alone finally earns him minutes.

 

[mauconnfan]

You ask where we need to improve and my answer will point to a place we were solid if not really good. The reason I point to this is I believe we will miss Whaley much more than many believe. Who will be that defender that makes the other teams offense, particularly the guards, change due to being afraid of his hands and ability to be in the way?? Guards rarely turned the corrner off his high hedge and he made the offense start further from the basket. Also was very good help off the ball in the paint where many of his blocks came from.

Is Samson the guy? Last years peek says no as he was rarely in the right spot and always in foul trouble. He certainly has the athleticism does he improve enough in understanding the game?

This is where they will need to improve based on inexperience.

 

[UCLJ0211]

Excited to see how the dishes come out from Tristen. What type of detergent is he using?

 

[QDOG5]

Have improved - made the NCAA tourney in consecutive years. Can improve - win some @#$%^&!! NCAA tourney games.

 

[Candyman]

Does Ajax really have 3 point success? He barely took threes last year which is why his percentage was where it was. 22 made threes in 33 games.

He needs confidence in his shot and be be able to hit them with a hand in his face. Most of the ones he made teams let him shoot it. Creighton left him alone and two games combined he was 1-9 and passed up like 10 other open threes.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Excited to see how the dishes come out from Tristen. What type of detergent is he using?

This is the first mention I'd seen about this. Can someobe come clean and confirm?

 

[drayenob]

Excited to see how the dishes come out from Tristen. What type of detergent is he using?

 

[HuskyHawk]

I get it but I don’t think it’s the right way to think about things. It is a team game. The parts now work. The last few years we asked several guys to do things that were not their strength. These are more versatile players for the most part, with fewer holes in their game.

This roster should mesh together better, with more guys contributing and nobody facing quite the load that Cole, Sanogo and Martin had in carrying the team. Yes, even Sanogo will have an easier time this year.

 

[mauconnfan]

I get it but I don’t think it’s the right way to think about things. It is a team game. The parts now work. The last few years we asked several guys to do things that were not their strength. These are more versatile players for the most part, with fewer holes in their game.

This roster should mesh together better, with more guys contributing and nobody facing quite the load that Cole, Sanogo and Martin had in carrying the team. Yes, even Sanogo will have an easier time this year.

Agree but mostly on offense. Will Sanogo be asked to help more on D because both Martin and Whaley are gone on the defensive end. I think we’ll be better up top and the perimeter on D but our guys were very good in the trenches last year on that end. It concerns me a bit.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

We shot the three poorly in an era where that seems to be the common denominator for real success .
Not being a very good screening team is part of it. I don’t see that changing until Clingan matures.
The idea of the 41 or 4 out is to put 3-4 shooters on the floor to spread the floor to stay away from gimmicks so you can isolate your 5 1v1 which in 99% of the cases would give us an advantage.

 

[Mister P]

We lost a number of key contributors but this years players will need to up the overall team FG % along with getting to the line more per game.

Last year we were ranked 173 as a team with a FG % of 43.5. This needs to improve another 3.5-5 percentage points if we are going to beat top tier teams and have league and NCAA success.

Get to the FT line more so we get more of the free points ! With Newton,Hawkins,Alleyne shooting in the mid 80’s and Jackson hopefully around 80 plus Karabans accuracy let’s use our size taking it to the rim more and then getting to the line.

I do see both of these areas improving with this years roster.

 

[BuffaloHusky]

Whaley was such a great defensive player but I think one of the reasons why was because he was always underestimated despite consistently great defensive plays and even being named BE DPOY. With Samson, it could very well be the opposite in that he is overestimated given his length and reach and instead of a shot that Whaley would block or draw a charge on, Samson won't necessarily be tested.

 

[SeattleHoop]

You ask where we need to improve and my answer will point to a place we were solid if not really good. The reason I point to this is I believe we will miss Whaley much more than many believe. Who will be that defender that makes the other teams offense, particularly the guards, change due to being afraid of his hands and ability to be in the way?? Guards rarely turned the corrner off his high hedge and he made the offense start further from the basket. Also was very good help off the ball in the paint where many of his blocks came from.

Is Samson the guy? Last years peek says no as he was rarely in the right spot and always in foul trouble. He certainly has the athleticism does he improve enough in understanding the game?

This is where they will need to improve based on inexperience.

Just a hunch but I think SJ will be a better offensive player than Whaley was. Which will make up for any lack compared to Whaley defensively

 

[aburks41]

The biggest change will be spacing on offense and surrounding Sanogo with shooters. If Sanogo develops a reliable mid range, he can pull the opposing center away from the restricted area and open up driving lanes for our athletes. We have more athleticism on the wings than any team in the country. We just need to hope that this new offensive philosophy unleashes that ability for our advantage.

 

[Kitaman]

I'll be happy to win more close games this coming season.

 

[mauconnfan]

Just a hunch but I think SJ will be a better offensive player than Whaley was. Which will make up for any lack compared to Whaley defensively

Not big on hunches. Let’s see it happen he was dreadful on defense and didn’t show much on offense either. He’ll have to be really good offensively to make up for a lack of defense. For you I know he just needs to dunk and get in someone’s face after to make you happy!

 

[microfich]

Excited to see how the dishes come out from Tristen. What type of detergent is he using?

"The 1st thing that stands out: passing. Newton has great awareness of where his teammates are and the ability to get the ball to them."
- Matt St. Jean, Big East Coast Bias, linky

5.0 assists last season as a Jr. RJ, never known for anything exceptional he served on a dish was 4.12.
6th all-time at ECSC in just 2.5 (COVID) seasons.
Extrapolating to 4 years he's #2.
Yes, I know, it's ECSU and yes, this menu item will be better cooked.

 

[jibsey]

Individually based upon what we've been able to glean this summer.

Andre Jackson
Needs: Successful hoop attacks including more FTs.
Has: 3pt success, increased awareness, leadership. I could go on. Stat sheet stuffer.

Jordan Hawkins
Needs: Better handle. Wider shot selection.
Has: Stronger. Said wider shot selection.

Adama Sanogo
Needs: Finding the open man on double teams. Hitting the 15 footer.
Has: Working hard on the little things. He's got that NBA glow.

Samson Johnson
Needs: Catching up to the speed of high D1 play. Better rotation on his jumper.
Has: Athleticism at the 4. So much room to grow, could be exciting or could be a while. The ?

Tristen Newton, let's call this PG play
Needs: Shutting down other PGs and removing the poster target.
Has: Elite size, scoring and dishwashing.

Bench
Needs: Depth, change of pace at point, defense as a whole especially across the back. Scoring.
Has: At least 5 guys (I say 6) who will contribute. Experienced high D1 talent. Frosh who will actually play.

Last season we slowed play as our bench speed was woeful beyond Hawkins.
We need to replace points from Polley and Hawkins (13.4 of our 19.0 bench ppg)
Our lone bench PG last year, Gaffney, was mostly miserable. Not apparent who will bring the ball up but D1-proven Alleyne and Diarra as combos
give us shooting, scoring and defense while Calcaterra is a dead-eye.
Clingan will protect and distribute, a step up from Akok. His huge presence alone impacts the game.
Karaban is a wild card who can fill it and may already have the body to compete.
Springs has to be considered for PT especially if Johnson struggles. His rebounding alone finally earns him minutes.

Looking forward to the season but going to be very difficult to figure this team out early because there is talent and I’m sure they will explode on some of the cupcakes leading to pronouncements of Final Four on this board before December.
It’s going to take a few games against high level teams to know something for certain.
‘Jackson, Sanogo and Hawkins are the only players we’ve seen with extended floor time for UCONN and only Sanogo is a true blue chip based on last year without obvious flaws. Jackson is fixing his shot over the summer and Hawkins corrected his handle and is becoming the #1 option on offense? We’ll see. Sanogo is a great player and I guess we’ll find out if anyone else also is.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Not big on hunches. Let’s see it happen he was dreadful on defense and didn’t show much on offense either. He’ll have to be really good offensively to make up for a lack of defense. For you I know he just needs to dunk and get in someone’s face after to make you happy!

He played 68 minutes. In his first 68 minutes Hawkins was dreadful on defense, couldn't handle the ball and missed almost all of his shots.

 

[Jumpman62114]

Coaching Staff:

• Need faster in game adjustments. Can’t wait until the second half or later when we’re getting destroyed on a given look/matchup.
• Similar to above, but specifically with respect to timeout usage. Let’s not wait until the opponent is on a 10-0 run to call a timeout.
• Better ATO plays. 75% of the time we’re content to just get the ball in bounds. I’d like to see us be more aggressive and look to score.
• Sideline demeanor (Hurley): Having energy is great and using that at the right time can be valuable, but I feel like he needs to be a bit more collected. I feel that will trickle down to the players at key moments as well.

 

[ucp990411]

He played 68 minutes. In his first 68 minutes Hawkins was dreadful on defense, couldn't handle the ball and missed almost all of his shots.

Missed almost

He played 68 minutes. In his first 68 minutes Hawkins was dreadful on defense, couldn't handle the ball and missed almost all of his shots.

missed almost all of his shots in his first 68 minutes? You must have missed the Auburn game

 

[HuskyHawk]

Missed almost

missed almost all of his shots in his first 68 minutes? You must have missed the Auburn game

You're right. His bad shooting mostly came after the Grambling game until he broke out vs Butler. But even with the big games he shot .353 for the year. Yes, I am still very high on him. Johnson didn't take many shots, but ended up at .556. Simply pointing out that he never had a chance to work through the freshman issues as Hawkins did. He played 20 minutes one time and was pretty good.

 

[ucp990411]

You're right. His bad shooting mostly came after the Grambling game until he broke out vs Butler. But even with the big games he shot .353 for the year. Yes, I am still very high on him. Johnson didn't take many shots, but ended up at .556. Simply pointing out that he never had a chance to work through the freshman issues as Hawkins did. He played 20 minutes one time and was pretty good.

To be honest I am not as high on Hawkins as others. As the season went on it appeared to me that he was scared when the lights were the brightest. I read the reports that he looks great in the workouts and I believe it. I hope that translates into the regular season.

 

[bendm]

i'm most anxious about how this team reacts to pressure and i dont mean facing a full court press. there is going to be more pressure on this hurley team to finally break through and win some games in march than ever before and the players are going to feel it every game starting at the PKI.

we have a lot of veteran leadership between newton, alleyne, aj, sanogo but i thought we had a lot last year too w/ cole, martin, polley, and whaley. cant have as many paralyzing starts and late game meltdowns.

 

[mauconnfan]

He played 68 minutes. In his first 68 minutes Hawkins was dreadful on defense, couldn't handle the ball and missed almost all of his shots.

I didn’t say anything about Hawkins what did I miss here? Oh comparison I’m guessing. Well Hawk wasn’t lost ever and maybe made some bad plays but there were good ones for sure. I get the idea but nope need to see a lot more from SJ and
I hope I do. But nothing last year gave me confidence.